Molasses Snow Candy

Remember when they made snow candy in the Little House on the Prairie books? Growing up in an area where we just didn’t get a whole lot of snow, I was always fascinated by this treat. I never quite got it to work out though. I ended up with gooey messes, teeth stuck together, and goop that just tasted like plain molasses. Last year I found The Little House Cookbook by Barbara M. Walker, and lo and behold, it had the recipe for molasses snow candy! Now we just needed some snow. This is not so easily done in this part of Oregon. My children have had even less snow days than I did.

Finally, this past week the weather reports called for snow. When we woke up this morning to white outside, the first thing my kids asked me was if we could make snow candy. Then they bundled up and ran outside to play in the snow. It was 5 in the morning, so we waited until closer to lunch time.

If you have snow in your part of the world, here’s the recipe for you to try.

1 cup dark molasses

1/2 cup brown sugar

pans for snow

First, send your kids out to pack some pans full of snow. Be sure to remind them to look for spots with clean snow where no one’s been walking (or peeing, or pooping…)

Boil the molasses and sugar in a large enough saucepan to leave room for it to boil up. Stir frequently for 5 minutes, and then test by pouring into water to see if it will form little balls that don’t dissolve.

Quickly pour the hot syrup over the pans of snow in little squiggles. It might want to freeze up on you, so working fast is important.

Let the candy cool and eat it when it’s nice and crunchy.